Russia, India to jointly upgrade GLONASS satellite

Russia and India will form a strategic partnership in joint upgrade, buildup, and further use of the GLONASS satellite navigation system, chief of the Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov told RIA Novosti and leading Indian media prior to departing for India as part of the official Russian presidential delegation.

“It is very important for us because Russia has not finalized the space-based sector of this navigation system, while India does not have any,” the chief of the Russian space agency underscored.

“We have agreed to not only rebuild this system jointly, but also replace spacecraft it now operates by new GLONASS-M and GLONASS-K satellites,” he went on.

According to Perminov, by 2007 Russia together with India intends to build the GLONASS system up to 18 satellites.

“There may be more, but let us not look into the future,” he said, “Currently 11 GLONASS satellites are operational with the system, but one needs 18 satellites to provide for the system’s normal operation over Russia and India,” Perminov explained, “In the future, we think the positioning precision could be improved to 1 meter.”